


memories on the wall

by pettigrace



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: 2.13, 3.17, 4.01, 5+1 Things, Canon Compliant, Crisis On Earth-X Crossover Event (CW DC TV Universe), Don't read this before you caught up, Episode: s02e13 Welcome to Earth-2, Episode: s03e17 Duet, Episode: s04e01 The Flash Reborn, Family Bonding, Family Dynamics, Family Feels, Father-Son Relationship, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Meta, Relationship Study, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-04
Updated: 2018-01-04
Packaged: 2019-02-28 10:14:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13269321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pettigrace/pseuds/pettigrace
Summary: 5 times Barry hears Joe sing + 1 time Joe hears Barry sing.





	memories on the wall

**Author's Note:**

  * For [trufflemores](https://archiveofourown.org/users/trufflemores/gifts).



> This was written with our dear [truffles](http://trufflemores.tumblr.com/) in mind, who always has the best meta around! I hope you like this! :)
> 
> The title is from Swedish House Mafia's "Don't You Worry Child", which is the Number 1 Song that I relate to Barry (as you may know from other fics of mine).
> 
> (Also: Of course they have heard each other sing more often, they live(d) in the same house, after all, but these are significant times.)

i.

Barry is 8 and Iris West is his best friend.

She's the only one who doesn't make fun of him when he picks up frogs on the schoolyard - as long as he keeps it away from her. The other kids throw words at him like he's crazy for patting small animals but Iris - Iris thinks he's _a hero_. She's said so.

They trade lunch boxes during break and Iris has even switched seats with Dorothy Meyers so that they can sit together in class. Iris makes funny comments and Barry tells her that sounds are vibrations. They both know different things and _it's cool_.

Barry _feels_ cool when he's around Iris. They visit each other after school (after doing homework, his mom decided) and then they talk and play and read and - right now they're drawing in the living room of the Wests’, on papers that are _everywhere_ on the dining table. Iris is drawing a thunderstorm because today in school they have learnt how the lightning gets into the clouds and out again. Barry is sketching a rocket that's big enough to get all the way to _Mars_ because in his comic there's people living there and they kind of look like green babies with long bodies. It would be fun to meet one of them.

“Ugh,” Iris makes after a while and looks up from her drawing. She rolls her eyes and Barry chuckles at that. “That's my  _dad_.”

Barry hadn't even paid attention to the sounds coming from the kitchen. There's pot clattering against each other and the quiet bass of the radio and - muffled singing.

“ _You put the lime in the coconut and drink 'em both up_ \--”

Iris sighs gravely and gets down from her chair. “I'll tell him to _shut up_.”

She says it in a whisper and looks at Barry with big eyes. She smiles because she knows how _cool_ she sounds like that… Like a 9-year-old can tell a _cop_ to _shut up_!

“ _Doc-TAH!_ ”, Iris’ dad is practically screaming then word. And then again, “ _Doc-TAH_!”

Barry chuckles and grabs Iris’ wrist to make her stay here. “It's funny.”, he tells her seriously. “Leave him.”

Then there's her dad shouting along to his _weird_ song again and Iris laughs, too.

 

 

ii.

Barry is 11 and his mother is dead.

He's seen it - seen her face and how it's been. Her eyes wide open in shock and - there's been lights. Not funny lights like at his last birthday party but angry colours and they _hurt_ in his eyes - and then they were gone and he was _on the middle of the street_.

He's run back to the house and - _they took his dad_.

There's been different lights when he came running down his street - blue and red and Barry is not _stupid_. He knows it's the police and the police is only there when something happened--

They took his dad and his mother is _dead_.

Detective West pulls him back from - from _the body_ and he tries to get away. Barry punches and turns, tries to get the Detective’s hand off his shoulder but - Detective West puts his arm around his chest and pulls him back.

There's words but Barry can't hear them, doesn't _want_ to hear them. He wants to get to his mom and dad and have them tell him he just had a nightmare and things are alright--

“ _Desperado_ ,” he hears suddenly, clear against his ear. “ _Why don't you come to your senses_?”

Barry watches as a cart wheels past him, throat dry and eyes wet, and suddenly he's _tired_. He curls into Detective West’s chest and breathes in his sharp scent and then there's a chin resting on top of his head.

Everything's gone then, everything's dark and there's only a voice.

 

 

iii.

Barry is 26 and there are multiple earths.

He should have accepted it by now, he's had more than enough visitors from Earth-2, but being actually _here_ … It's a whole different thing. Earth-2, he notices, is like someone dipped the world intocopper, as if someone's cyberpunk fantasy became real, judging by the combination of old clothing and new technology.

Barry could _love_ it here, technically. It seems like this world is full of surprises, technologically advanced to his earth and he’s _married to Iris_. Best of all, his mother is alive and well and--

And Joe is a singer?

“ _Some things that happened for the first time seem to be happening again_ ”, Joe sings, his voice husky and fitting to the jazz music playing in the background, and Barry can barely hide his gape. He’s heard him sing quite a few times already, but never this professional and never this _good_.

“Joe can sing.”, he says before he can stop himself, staring at the doppelgänger of his foster father.

Iris nods next to him. “He’s the best.”

Barry agrees with a nod of himself, primarily because she’s right, but also because _hey_ , the Barry of Earth-2 probably knows that already.

Still, he slips up when Iris leaves to get something to drink and he sits down with Joe. “So, you can sing.”

He’s already been confused when Joe told him to use his full name, using his own in return, but he figured maybe that’s just what people do on this earth. But the way Joe replies makes him feel uneasy, like something is really _off_.

“So you’re still an idiot.”, Joe - _Joseph_ \- says with a dry laughter, echoing his words. And yet, there’s this seriousness in his voice that makes Barry almost glad that the things that happen next aren’t happening to _his_ Joe.

It’s selfish, he knows, and his ache still aches when he sees Iris crouch down next to where Joseph lies on the floor, because nobody everywhere should suffer from this - he knows it better than anyone - but _for a second_ \--

He hates himself for it, but he’s happy he doesn’t need to pretend that he dislikes any version of Joe.

  


iv.

Barry is 27 and his life is a musical.

Not in the my-life-is-so-weird-you-could-turn-it-into-a-musical sense or the I-sing-a-lot sense but _literally_. He’s been sent into a world that _is_ a musical and has to play his role in it until the plot is over. So far he's met _so_ many doppelgängers who'd all meant to show off their musical talents that he's almost found delight in this world.

That is, until it becomes clear that he isn't supposed to be the main character who finds his luck and love. He's merely one of the supportive cast. He gets a goofy duet with Kara and then he's the _supportive_ romantic who watches the one he likes run off into the sunset with someone else.

Namely, Iris-- _Millie_ and _Tommy Moran_.

He can tell that Kara's been as stressed as he's been, because Tommy looks just like her boyfriend back home. And yet, they've encouraged them to - well, to follow the script and get together, to tell their fathers about their relationship.

Why they've decided that Barry follows Millie, he doesn't know. Wouldn't it have been easier if Kara had gone to Joe - _Digsy Foss_ \- since she has no associations with his face (or his daughter)? They must have been reduced to the logic of romantic tragedies as well.

And as if the whole thing couldn't get any weirder, Millie has _a second father_ who just so happens to be Professor Stein’s double. Barry knows he’s bad at the whole remember-this-is-not-your-world thing, he realizes as he keeps being awkward and even doing a whole rant that he bases on _his_ Iris - something that _he_ should have noticed before just running into things head first (quite literally).

But as Digsy and Stein’s doppelgänger sing, he also realized that there’s one constant: no matter where he is, which version of Joe he faces, there’s nothing he wouldn’t do for his daughter. They all value family above anything else, let it be by blood or found, but the bond Joe and Iris share is unique, something that will always be there, no matter in which circumstances.

 

 

v.

Barry is 63 and.

Barry is 21 and his father was just killed.

He just accidentally travelled back in time.

Barry is 48 and Iris just kissed him for the first time.

The Flash is 6 and he just became a father.

Barry is 30 and he just met Oliver Queen.

Barry.

The Flash.

Barry is the Flash and he's 11.

Barry is.

_Desperado, why don't you come to your senses?_

For a moment, there's a smiling man. He's smiling but he looks sad. He's smiling but also crying as he reaches out and cups Barry's cheek softly and--

Barry is 28 and he just escaped from the Speed Force.

 

 

+1

Barry is 28 and Iris West is the love of his life.

He's said so for years now, either playfully or hidden or right into her face, announcing it to everyone - no matter if they want to hear it or not. One thing that's always the same: he means it.

Joe knows he does, and he also knows that he's right: the love that Barry has for Iris… there's nothing like it. He's never seen anyone go such lengths for another person, he has never seen anyone look at another person with as much love as Barry sends Iris’ way.

Even when it seemed like Iris wouldn't return his feelings, when Barry stepped aside to grant her her own happiness - he's loved her, so deeply and truly that _love_ might not be a strong enough word. And maybe it doesn't need words - seeing Barry is enough. There's no denial about the truth of his actions and words when it comes to Iris - the way his eyes light up, his gestures become spontaneous and precise at the same time.

Joe can't make out a single word that Barry's currently saying (so there's not only aliens casually walking around on Earth-Whatever but they have superspeed, too?) and his face is blurry, but the way his silhouette moves - it's full of excitement and nervosity and _love_.

He knows that Barry talks to Kara about _the song_.

He's heard the story of the proposal - the real one, the one that counts - from both him and Iris, but Joe hasn't heard the song. He hasn't insisted to hear it, figuring that it's too personal and probably too awkward for Barry to sing it for anyone but _Iris_.

And he still sings it only _for_ Iris, but not just _to_ her.

“ _Can't say what the days will unfold_ ”, amidst the blur of words during their conversation, there's suddenly a clear melody. Joe turns around and watches as Barry moves his hand along the lyrics on a sheet of paper. Kara is looking and humming along. “ _Can't change what the future may hold._ ”

It's so honest and pure and even though he's singing it only to show Kara the melody, Joe can see how much feelings he pours into it. There's tears in his eyes even though Iris isn't even around and - Joe feels a soft tug in his stomach when Barry looks up, probably feeling his eyes on him.

They nod at each other and Barry doesn't break the song, not just because he doesn't mind anyone hearing what he wants to tell Iris.

“ _All I wanna do is come running home to you._ ”

It feels, for a moment, like it's aimed at Joe, too. Not in the same sense, of course, but--

Joe is 49 and Barry Allen has been his son for 17 years.

**Author's Note:**

>  **Please leave a comment!**  
>  If you liked this, come check out my [tumblr](http://joanthangroff.tumblr.com) or talk to me on [twitter](http://twitter.com/Ll4MDUNBAR).


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